The communication of corporate environmental messages has a history of mixed results, at best. We emphasize in this article the complexities asso ciated with environmental information and its subsequent communication, and explore the concepts of process credibility, temporal relevance, and noise as potential impediments to environmental communication perfor mance. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) information is presented as holding some promise by which improved communication effectiveness of environ mental/sustainable claims may materialize. Following the scandals of Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, HealthSouth and others, an increasing emphasis has been placed on corporate accountability, meaningful disclosure, and transparency in reporting. While these issues are often discussed in a financial context, they also pertain to the environ mental and social performance of companies. Both public and private organizations have begun to recognize environmental communication as an important management tool that can assist in establishing and maintaining good relations with stakeholder groups.
{"title":"How Much Is Too Much?: Exploring Life Cycle Assessment Information in Environmental Marketing Communication","authors":"S. Molina-Murillo, Timothy Smith","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/211","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/211","url":null,"abstract":"The communication of corporate environmental messages has a history of mixed results, at best. We emphasize in this article the complexities asso ciated with environmental information and its subsequent communication, and explore the concepts of process credibility, temporal relevance, and noise as potential impediments to environmental communication perfor mance. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) information is presented as holding some promise by which improved communication effectiveness of environ mental/sustainable claims may materialize. Following the scandals of Enron, Tyco, Adelphia, HealthSouth and others, an increasing emphasis has been placed on corporate accountability, meaningful disclosure, and transparency in reporting. While these issues are often discussed in a financial context, they also pertain to the environ mental and social performance of companies. Both public and private organizations have begun to recognize environmental communication as an important management tool that can assist in establishing and maintaining good relations with stakeholder groups.","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"199-223"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240184","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We consider and reject the influential position that free markets and responsive democracies relieve corporations of ethical obligations to protect the environment. More specifically, we argue that corporations have ethical obligations to combat global climate change. We focus in particular on the roles of business organizations in the transportation and electricity generation sectors. Ethically grounded management and public policy recommendations are offered.
{"title":"Business, Ethics, and Global Climate Change","authors":"D. Arnold, Keith Bustos","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/26","url":null,"abstract":"We consider and reject the influential position that free markets and responsive democracies relieve corporations of ethical obligations to protect the environment. More specifically, we argue that corporations have ethical obligations to combat global climate change. We focus in particular on the roles of business organizations in the transportation and electricity generation sectors. Ethically grounded management and public policy recommendations are offered.","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"103-130"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240249","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In this paper, we explain what hybrids are and explore the behavioral, market, and government unde innings of the commercialization of this technology. Hybrid electric vehicles offer the potential for substantial increases in the fuel efficiency of U.S. vehicles. They could mitigate persistent and serious environmental problems, improve our economic and national security, and reduce trade imbalances. The question is will hybrid technology reach its potential. Can it solve the problems brought on by oil dependence without changes in behavior, markets, and government policies? Our answer to this question is a qualified no. Technology by itself without changes in these other factors can only take us so far. Without attention to these factors, hybrids are more hype than hope. Our purpose in writing this article is to explain why.
{"title":"Hybrids-Hype or Hope?","authors":"A. Marcus, D. Geffen","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/28","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/28","url":null,"abstract":"In this paper, we explain what hybrids are and explore the behavioral, market, and government unde innings of the commercialization of this technology. Hybrid electric vehicles offer the potential for substantial increases in the fuel efficiency of U.S. vehicles. They could mitigate persistent and serious environmental problems, improve our economic and national security, and reduce trade imbalances. The question is will hybrid technology reach its potential. Can it solve the problems brought on by oil dependence without changes in behavior, markets, and government policies? Our answer to this question is a qualified no. Technology by itself without changes in these other factors can only take us so far. Without attention to these factors, hybrids are more hype than hope. Our purpose in writing this article is to explain why.","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"141-161"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71239826","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This paper is about what some have called "the next industrial revolution."1 My starting assumption is that in the early years of the twenty-first century humanity is faced with a cluster of significant economic, ecological, and ethical challenges. Extreme poverty, exacerbated by a cycle of political repression, war, famine, disease, and natural disasters, confronts hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis. Throughout the world, hundreds of millions of human beings struggle just to get the basic necessities of life: clean water, nutritious food, shelter, health care, education, jobs. Population growth guarantees that these problems will only intensify in the immediate future. Justice and common decency, as well as self-interest, requires that these problems be addressed by those living in the economically developed world. Addressing these challenges will require significant global economic activity, integrated with social and political leadership. However, the earth's biosphere, ultimately the only source for all this economic activity, is already under severe stress from just the type of economic growth that many assume is the solution to these challenges. These factors will require that business in the twenty-first century be practiced in a way that is economically vibrant enough to address the real needs of billions of people, yet ecologically informed so that the earth's capacity to support life is not diminished by that activity and ethically sensitive enough that the human dignity is not lost or violated in the process.
{"title":"Business and Environmental Sustainability","authors":"Joseph R. DesJardins","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/23","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/23","url":null,"abstract":"This paper is about what some have called \"the next industrial revolution.\"1 My starting assumption is that in the early years of the twenty-first century humanity is faced with a cluster of significant economic, ecological, and ethical challenges. Extreme poverty, exacerbated by a cycle of political repression, war, famine, disease, and natural disasters, confronts hundreds of millions of people on a daily basis. Throughout the world, hundreds of millions of human beings struggle just to get the basic necessities of life: clean water, nutritious food, shelter, health care, education, jobs. Population growth guarantees that these problems will only intensify in the immediate future. Justice and common decency, as well as self-interest, requires that these problems be addressed by those living in the economically developed world. Addressing these challenges will require significant global economic activity, integrated with social and political leadership. However, the earth's biosphere, ultimately the only source for all this economic activity, is already under severe stress from just the type of economic growth that many assume is the solution to these challenges. These factors will require that business in the twenty-first century be practiced in a way that is economically vibrant enough to address the real needs of billions of people, yet ecologically informed so that the earth's capacity to support life is not diminished by that activity and ethically sensitive enough that the human dignity is not lost or violated in the process.","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"35-59"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240214","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The interface between business ethics and environmental responsibility is environmental ethics. Environmental ethics deals with the nature of moral ity in relationships involving humans and the environment. The normative claim that we have duties and obligations in our relationships with the envi ronment is analogous to the normative claim in the realm of human ethics that we have duties and obligations in our relationships with other humans (Taylor, 1986). In this paper, we will refer to the human duties and obligations to the environment as "vivantary responsibility." Vivantary re sponsibility occurs at the intersection of environmental ethics and manage ment decision-making. The word "vivantary" was coined by Franz (2001) as a new analogical formulation that is modeled on the word "fiduciary." Fiduciary responsibil ity is a well-developed and well-understood concept in both public and private organizations. Fiduciary responsibility comes into play whenever a manager is charged with the duty to manage the financial resources of another in an optimal fashion. The thesis of this paper is that the current concept of fiduciary responsibility is defined so narrowly that many efforts at fulfilling fiduciary responsibility have unintended side effects that lead to sub-optimal or even detrimental management of financial resources. In
{"title":"From Fiduciary to Vivantary Responsibility","authors":"D. Adolphson, E. H. Franz","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/25","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/25","url":null,"abstract":"The interface between business ethics and environmental responsibility is environmental ethics. Environmental ethics deals with the nature of moral ity in relationships involving humans and the environment. The normative claim that we have duties and obligations in our relationships with the envi ronment is analogous to the normative claim in the realm of human ethics that we have duties and obligations in our relationships with other humans (Taylor, 1986). In this paper, we will refer to the human duties and obligations to the environment as \"vivantary responsibility.\" Vivantary re sponsibility occurs at the intersection of environmental ethics and manage ment decision-making. The word \"vivantary\" was coined by Franz (2001) as a new analogical formulation that is modeled on the word \"fiduciary.\" Fiduciary responsibil ity is a well-developed and well-understood concept in both public and private organizations. Fiduciary responsibility comes into play whenever a manager is charged with the duty to manage the financial resources of another in an optimal fashion. The thesis of this paper is that the current concept of fiduciary responsibility is defined so narrowly that many efforts at fulfilling fiduciary responsibility have unintended side effects that lead to sub-optimal or even detrimental management of financial resources. In","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"79-102"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240238","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The information revolution and the global environmental crisis may be transforming our world. Yet it is surprising that there is so little discussion of the links between these two international trends. Technologies often generate far-reaching environmental impacts, including many that are unan ticipated and remain unrecognized. As the historian Edward Tenner ( 1997) once observed, history is loaded with examples of new technologies that "bite back" with unanticipated consequences. When climate scientists refer to the unmistakable influence of human activities on global warming, what we are really talking about is the carbon emissions from driving your car, using a computer to send e-mail, and reading your book at night. Even as we turn to technological innovation and development to save us from the global environmental crisis, we tend to forget that our overdependence on and con sumption of technologies is likely to have brought our planet to this crisis point in the first place. With terms like "pervasive computing" gaining increasing legitimacy, there is an increasing need to explore more fully the environmental and social implications of a modern network society. I argue in this article that the introduction of new technologies has always had a profound impact on environmental and resource issues and advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) are likely
{"title":"Connecting the Electronic Dots: Ecological and Social Dimensions of the Global Information Revolution","authors":"Jacob Park","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/212","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/212","url":null,"abstract":"The information revolution and the global environmental crisis may be transforming our world. Yet it is surprising that there is so little discussion of the links between these two international trends. Technologies often generate far-reaching environmental impacts, including many that are unan ticipated and remain unrecognized. As the historian Edward Tenner ( 1997) once observed, history is loaded with examples of new technologies that \"bite back\" with unanticipated consequences. When climate scientists refer to the unmistakable influence of human activities on global warming, what we are really talking about is the carbon emissions from driving your car, using a computer to send e-mail, and reading your book at night. Even as we turn to technological innovation and development to save us from the global environmental crisis, we tend to forget that our overdependence on and con sumption of technologies is likely to have brought our planet to this crisis point in the first place. With terms like \"pervasive computing\" gaining increasing legitimacy, there is an increasing need to explore more fully the environmental and social implications of a modern network society. I argue in this article that the introduction of new technologies has always had a profound impact on environmental and resource issues and advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs) are likely","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"225-236"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The purpose of the paper is to examine the roots of our obligation to preserve the land and its resources, to address in some systematic way the "So what?" response to the massive documentation of environmental dete rioration and the accompanying environmentalist imperatives. We will begin with an exercise in deconstruction?the parsing of an event, just one event, to extract from its account some of the problems that environmental ism has got itself into, especially in dealing with the multiple faces of American business. From that point we will be in a position to address the central project of the paper, an elaboration of an ethic for the appreciation and protection of the natural environment, "the land," for short, meaning the earth, all its life, all its resources. The event in question was the presentation of a paper at a meeting of environmental funding agencies, hardly the sort of thing that normally ruffles the feathers of angels dancing on the heads of pins. The program of the meeting featured reflections from a variety of sources on the status of the nation's environmental initiatives. To the enormous chagrin of the leaders of the environmental movement, two relative youngsters, Michael Shell enberger and Ted Nordhaus, upended what had been a relatively unified forum with an argument that environmentalism, as a movement, was dead,
{"title":"Greening Business, Root and Branch: The Forms and Limits of Economic Environmentalism","authors":"L. Newton","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/22","url":null,"abstract":"The purpose of the paper is to examine the roots of our obligation to preserve the land and its resources, to address in some systematic way the \"So what?\" response to the massive documentation of environmental dete rioration and the accompanying environmentalist imperatives. We will begin with an exercise in deconstruction?the parsing of an event, just one event, to extract from its account some of the problems that environmental ism has got itself into, especially in dealing with the multiple faces of American business. From that point we will be in a position to address the central project of the paper, an elaboration of an ethic for the appreciation and protection of the natural environment, \"the land,\" for short, meaning the earth, all its life, all its resources. The event in question was the presentation of a paper at a meeting of environmental funding agencies, hardly the sort of thing that normally ruffles the feathers of angels dancing on the heads of pins. The program of the meeting featured reflections from a variety of sources on the status of the nation's environmental initiatives. To the enormous chagrin of the leaders of the environmental movement, two relative youngsters, Michael Shell enberger and Ted Nordhaus, upended what had been a relatively unified forum with an argument that environmentalism, as a movement, was dead,","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"9-34"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
It is strange that contemporary discussions of "corporate social responsibil ity" rarely take the term "responsibility" seriously. Deference is shown to praiseworthy corporate behavior without focusing on the underlying philo sophical issue of whether there are any obligations to reinvest in communi ties, orient operations toward long term development, or protect the envi ronment. It is for this reason that I find it valuable that Denis Arnold and Keith Bustos focus their remarks on a rather basic question: should we place moral responsibility for environmental degradation on businesses even when they have lawfully participated in the marketplace? They answer this question in the affirmative for two central reasons. First, they argue that there are few political, i.e., legislative and administrative, avenues available to correct for corporate activity that adversely impacts key public goods such as air, water and health. Second, the benefits that have accrued to corporations during the last five to six decades have come at a high price, namely, the environ mental health of the planet and thereby the well-being of current and future generations. Justice demands that the benefits one receives should be proportionate to the costs imposed on others through the realization of these benefits. Corporations, thus, have duties to adjust their practices to mini mize these social costs and compensate communities for past harm.
{"title":"Market Failures, Political Solutions and Corporate Environmental Responsibility","authors":"Jeffery Smith","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/27","url":null,"abstract":"It is strange that contemporary discussions of \"corporate social responsibil ity\" rarely take the term \"responsibility\" seriously. Deference is shown to praiseworthy corporate behavior without focusing on the underlying philo sophical issue of whether there are any obligations to reinvest in communi ties, orient operations toward long term development, or protect the envi ronment. It is for this reason that I find it valuable that Denis Arnold and Keith Bustos focus their remarks on a rather basic question: should we place moral responsibility for environmental degradation on businesses even when they have lawfully participated in the marketplace? They answer this question in the affirmative for two central reasons. First, they argue that there are few political, i.e., legislative and administrative, avenues available to correct for corporate activity that adversely impacts key public goods such as air, water and health. Second, the benefits that have accrued to corporations during the last five to six decades have come at a high price, namely, the environ mental health of the planet and thereby the well-being of current and future generations. Justice demands that the benefits one receives should be proportionate to the costs imposed on others through the realization of these benefits. Corporations, thus, have duties to adjust their practices to mini mize these social costs and compensate communities for past harm.","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"131-139"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71239811","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Hybrid Vehicles, Consumer Choice, and the Ethical Obligation of Business","authors":"Jared D. Harris","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ2005241/29","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ2005241/29","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"24 1","pages":"163-170"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2005-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71239841","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In the last quarter-century, debates regarding business and the life of faith have occurred in three distinct stages. About twenty-five years ago, I was invited to the University of Notre Dame to take part in a symposium jointly sponsored by the business school and the theology department. Notre Dame was founded in 1842, and never before had the two departments engaged each other directly. The theology department negotiated hard for the title of the symposium, and?I kid you not?I was asked to lecture under the question, "Can a Christian Work for a Corporation?" I refused. But Father Ollie Williams at the business school was working very hard to initiate serious reflection on these questions, and this was a big first step for him. He said I had to lecture under that title, because it was the only way the theology department would agree to it. "I won't do it," I told him, "unless I can also ask whether a Christian can be a university professor or, for that matter, a bishop." A little while later, I was telling my good friend, Irving Kristol, about the conference, and Irving said, "Let me tell you what to say." When I went to South Bend, there was a big crowd?the conference had caused some controversy on campus?and I began this way. "You asked me to speak on the question 'Can a Christian Work for a Corporation?'" I paused for a long time, to let them think about the question. Then I said, "My answer is: No." After a gasp from the audience, I said: "Only Muslims and Jews." What they really wanted was for me to say "Yes," and then feel guilty about it. That first stage of the debate, twenty-five years ago, was hostile to the corporation. The corporation was seen as evil. Liberation theology, the
在过去的四分之一个世纪里，关于商业和信仰生活的争论发生在三个不同的阶段。大约25年前，我应邀到圣母大学(University of Notre Dame)参加一个由商学院和神学系联合主办的研讨会。巴黎圣母院始建于1842年，在此之前，这两个部门从未直接接触过。神学系为研讨会的题目进行了艰苦的谈判，结果呢?我没骗你吧?我被要求就“基督徒能在公司工作吗?”这个问题进行演讲。我拒绝了。但商学院的奥利•威廉姆斯神父(Father Ollie Williams)非常努力地开始认真思考这些问题，这对他来说是重要的第一步。他说我必须用这个题目讲课，因为只有这样神学系才会同意。“我不会这么做的，”我告诉他，“除非我也能问一个基督徒是否可以成为大学教授，或者就此而言，是否可以成为主教。”过了一会儿，我跟我的好朋友欧文·克里斯托尔谈起这次会议，欧文说:“让我告诉你该说什么。”我去南本德的时候，那里有一大群人?这次会议在校园里引起了一些争议。我就是这样开始的。“你让我就‘基督徒能在公司工作吗?’”我停顿了很长时间，让他们思考这个问题。然后我说:“我的回答是:不。”观众们倒吸了一口气，我说:“只有穆斯林和犹太人。”他们真正想要的是我说“是”，然后为此感到内疚。25年前，辩论的第一阶段是对公司的敌意。公司被看作是邪恶的。解放神学
{"title":"Religious Faith, Corporate Life, and the Betterment of Society","authors":"M. Novak","doi":"10.5840/BPEJ20042342","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.5840/BPEJ20042342","url":null,"abstract":"In the last quarter-century, debates regarding business and the life of faith have occurred in three distinct stages. About twenty-five years ago, I was invited to the University of Notre Dame to take part in a symposium jointly sponsored by the business school and the theology department. Notre Dame was founded in 1842, and never before had the two departments engaged each other directly. The theology department negotiated hard for the title of the symposium, and?I kid you not?I was asked to lecture under the question, \"Can a Christian Work for a Corporation?\" I refused. But Father Ollie Williams at the business school was working very hard to initiate serious reflection on these questions, and this was a big first step for him. He said I had to lecture under that title, because it was the only way the theology department would agree to it. \"I won't do it,\" I told him, \"unless I can also ask whether a Christian can be a university professor or, for that matter, a bishop.\" A little while later, I was telling my good friend, Irving Kristol, about the conference, and Irving said, \"Let me tell you what to say.\" When I went to South Bend, there was a big crowd?the conference had caused some controversy on campus?and I began this way. \"You asked me to speak on the question 'Can a Christian Work for a Corporation?'\" I paused for a long time, to let them think about the question. Then I said, \"My answer is: No.\" After a gasp from the audience, I said: \"Only Muslims and Jews.\" What they really wanted was for me to say \"Yes,\" and then feel guilty about it. That first stage of the debate, twenty-five years ago, was hostile to the corporation. The corporation was seen as evil. Liberation theology, the","PeriodicalId":53983,"journal":{"name":"BUSINESS & PROFESSIONAL ETHICS JOURNAL","volume":"23 1","pages":"13-25"},"PeriodicalIF":0.4,"publicationDate":"2004-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71240055","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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